All quiet at the <i>'pitkali'</i>

Where in London does one find a traffic jam at 2.30 in the morning? Answer: At the fruit, vegetable and flower market in Nine Elms, Vauxhall. There, you will find huge container vehicles being loaded with the various produce ready for delivery to the retail supermarkets and to the open markets that can be found all over London in time for business in the morning.

Does one find a traffic jam around that time at Ta' Qali? Not a hope, unless the hunters and trappers descend en masse in the area to catch the early bird. Otherwise, nothing stirs to disturb the cosy and complacent arrangement that has been in operation at the pitkali for as long as anyone can remember.

The result of this laid-back attitude is that in the south of the island you cannot buy fresh vegetables on the Monday morning, a time when this commodity is needed most, and neither are they available on a Thursday until the evening. One can buy less than fresh vegetables at certain supermarkets but never on a Monday morning will one find fresh vegetables for sale anywhere in the south.

Entry into Europe may have signalled the need for an overhaul of customary business habits in this area and a reappraisal of the existing methods of consumer distribution of essential commodities, such as agricultural produce.

In spite of government exhortations in general to the business community to grab the opportunities offered by EU entry which demand change, nothing, I am afraid, will change. As they say, the more things change or appear to by entry into Europe, the more they will stay the same.

But then we have been brainwashed to accept lower standards of service in all areas of consumer demand, especially with the inefficient and unsatisfactory distribution system of many an essential household commodity.